


The Tale of the Slender Man (And Other Spooky Happenings)

by sammys_lover



Series: October Writing Challenge '20 [18]
Category: We Bare Bears (Cartoon)
Genre: Bloody Mary - Freeform, Creepypasta, Do horror stories count as fairy tales?, Fairy Tale Retellings, Friendship, Gen, Halloween, Horror, No Romance, October, October Prompt Challenge, Reader-Insert, Scary, Slenderman - Freeform, The Midnight Man - Freeform, They did for me when i was a kid, blood mention, mention of violence, october writing challenge, sfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27092047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammys_lover/pseuds/sammys_lover
Summary: You're helping the bears decorate their cave for Halloween!Nothing like some spooky stories to set the mood
Series: October Writing Challenge '20 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949584
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	The Tale of the Slender Man (And Other Spooky Happenings)

“Thanks for coming over to give us a hand, Y/n.” 

“Yeah! I can’t believe it’s our first Halloween together!” 

Grizz hops excitedly behind Panda as they let you into the cave, your arms full of bags of décor. You’d brought at least four bags of lights and garlands and such for the bears – you love Halloween, and what better way to express that love than to bring it to some of your best friends? 

“I know, right?” You set the decorations down on their coffee table, looking around the cave, a finger to your chin. “Uh, do you guys want to start in here or outside?” 

“Let’s get in here! We can get outside when our baby bro gets home.” 

You, Grizz and Panda rummage through the bags, with Panda picking up a few garlands, and Grizz taking to the paper ghosts – you've got lights and skulls. 

“Y’know, we have this tradition in my family,” You start, getting up on your tip-toes to hang the lights above a doorway – Grizz and Panda notice, and stack to give you a boost. “oop- thanks, uh, we have a tradition where we each tell a story to try and freak each other out. Er, well, I’m the only one who ever tells the stories... but it’s still fun.” 

“Hah!” they let you down and off the stack, and you walk along the cave wall, continuing to hang the lights as you go. “Well, you can try to scare us, but we’re some preeetty tough bears. It’s gonna take more than a little story to spook us. Right, Pan-pan?” 

“Yup!” Just then, thunder rolls in the distance, and Panda jumps slightly. You have to suppress a laugh. 

“Alright, if you guys insist you can’t be scared, then I guess you won’t mind listening to the story of Bloody Mary?” 

Grizz looks unfazed, while Panda looks a... bit uneasy. Oh my, is he okay? 

“Lay it on us, Y/n!” 

Grizz pumps his paw in the air as he put up a paper ghost in the corner, Panda shooting him a nervous glance. 

“Okay, you asked for it... Long ago, there was a young woman named Mary. She was... a bit of an unlucky young lady – her bones broke easily, she bruised at every touch, she woke at every sound, and she lived a tired, overworked life.” 

You hang the lights over the kichen arch. Thunder rolls overhead now. 

“And because she was so brittle and frail, she brought her family shame... and one day she could no longer take the shame she cast upon her family, and walked into her bathroom...” 

You turn to face them completely, and find that they’ve both stopped what they were doing, decorations still in their hands. 

“...Her father’s axe in her hand...” 

You’re pretty sure you hear panda whisper “no,” under his breath. 

“...Looked into her mirror...” You wait a beat. “...and embedded it in her skull!” 

Lightning flashes outside the window, and you plug in the lights you’d strung up, moving to pick up a fake skull out of a bag on the table. 

“Thay say that when they found her, her blood was all over the mirror, and her body crumpled under the weight of the axe. Her limbs bent in horrible, unnatural positions, her entire face purple with bruises... and that brought her family even more shame. So instead of alerting the town’s doctor, they instead hid her broken body in their yard, along with the axe, buried deep under their garden.” you hold the skull dramatically in your hand, noting the wide eyes the bears watched you with. 

“Th-that’s horrible...” Grizz starts, cuddling a fake spider before clipping it onto a curtain. 

“Oh, the story doesn’t end there, my fine furry friend.” You place the skull on a shelf, grabbing one of those fake flickering candles, holding it in your hands under your chin. “Her family did their best to clean up her blood, all the while muttering about how much of a pain she was to have around, how glad they were that she was gone, while mopping up the buckets of her blood that had spilled. And when her father, up to his elbows in his daughter’s blood, moved to clean the mirror, he muttered her name with spite on his breath. 

And when he did... heh. The lights went out, and the ghost of his child crawled forth from the mirror, cursing him as she got closer. When she had him trapped, she possessed him, and used the axe that she was buried with to slaughter her entire family... all but one. Her twin sister had escaped the axe-wielding maniac, and after Mary drove the axe into her father’s brain, she vowed to never rest until she had revenge on ALL who had wronged her.” 

Panda and Grizz were standing nervously together now, and you take a step forward, barely containing your laughter. “And to this very day she STILL searches – and they say that you can summon her restless ghost if you enter a darkened bathroom, look into the mirror, and chant... bloody Mary,” 

You hold the candle with a single hand, your other mimicking a claw. 

“Bloody Mary...” 

Panda’s shaking his head rapidly, and you’re pretty sure Grizz is holding his breath. 

“BLOODY MARY!” 

A crack of deafening thunder shakes the cave, and you take the opportunity to laugh like a maniac – even as the power flickers out. 

Grizz and Panda are screaming while you cackle, but you quickly join them when the front door swings open, and lightening illuminates a huge figure in the doorway. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-” 

You cling to your fake candle for dear life as Panda rushes past you to take cover in the kitchen, almost knocking you over – Grizz isn’t far behind, and he catches you, picks you up, and runs for his life – you drop your candle in the process, nearly hitting your head on the kitchen’s archway. 

It looked like the table had been knocked over, (most likely by accident... you are all running around in the dark, after all.) and Grizz quickly ducks behind it to find a wheezing Panda, his inhaler in-paw. 

The three of you try to quiet your breathing as the storm continues outside, but Panda’s sort of... inconsolable. You wiggle out of Grizz’s grasp to scramble on the floor, taking Panda’s face and telling him to calm down before you quickly grab a knife from one of their drawers. 

You make your way between the two, peeking your head up and over the edge of the overturned table, listening to the footsteps get closer. You duck down, and you have to pull Grizz down with you, motioning for the both of them to be quiet as you held the knife with a death grip. 

When the footsteps are right beside the table, you leap up, shouting “RUN!” as you leapt for whatever intruder – but you were swiftly knocked off your feet, and the knife was taken from you quickly as you fell on your face. 

You roll over, ready to fight to your death when you realize it’s- it’s only Ice Bear. You mentally facepalm, and accept his open paw as he helps you back up. 

“What is happening in Ice Bear’s kitchen?” 

You laugh sheepishly, rubbing your cheek, (which you fell on.) immediately apologizing. “I’m so sorry,” you bend to pick up the table, setting it back upright. “I was telling a scary story and- and there was thunder and the lightening, and you have some really good timing.” He still looks confused, but the both of you quickly note that there’s still yelling going on... somewhere else. 

Grizz and Panda hadn’t stopped screaming, and they quickly ran out of the room to go... hide somewhere else, you guess. 

“I’m... gonna go let them know it’s all clear. I’m sorry about the knife... thing.” 

“Ice Bear forgives you. You never could have won.” 

“Ain’t that the truth.” 

And so, you quickly figure out that they’re holed up in Panda’s room, and when you try the knob, it’s locked. 

“YOU’LL NEVER GET IN HERE, MURDERER!” 

“Grizz! It’s just me, open the doo- AH-!” 

The door opens, he pulls you in, and it shuts at lightning speed, Grizz’s back pressed against it. He has a... pillow. For a weapon. 

Panda’s on his phone, scrolling through something. 

“Who do we call??? Do we call the police for ghosts?? Who do we call, Grizz, who do we call???” 

“It’s just I.B! He’s back! He just timed that really well! It’s alright! It’s okay!” 

The two of them blink before Grizz laughs nervously, lowering the pillow. “Yeah! Oh- it's alright, Pan-Pan.” 

Panda just sort of...falls backwards onto the bed, fainting. 

“He gonna be okay?” 

“Yeah, he’ll be fine. He’ll wake up in a minute or two.” 

*** 

And so after you revive Panda, you coax him out of the room and into the kitchen, where Ice Bear had set up some emergency candles for light as he unpacked the remainder of the groceries he’d brought home – and that included pumpkins for carving. 

You all sit at the table, laughing as you explained in a bit more detail what had scared you three so bad – Ice Bear looks intrigued. 

“Ice Bear would like to hear a story.” 

You look up at I.B questioningly, taking the top off of your pumpkin, grabbing the guts with your hands, scooping them into a bowl. 

Grizz tries to back out of it with some half-baked excuse, and Panda just...shakes his head, clinging to his phone like there’s no tomorrow. 

“Ah, I dunno, I.B. These two were a little...” You gesture with your pumpkin-y hands. “Freaked out.” 

“Hey- we were only scared because we thought there was some kinda murderer... ghost... thing!” Grizz’s protest is followed by hands on his hips. Panda shrinks down in his seat. “I’m not scared, really!” 

You raise a brow as you rise to wash off your hands before you grab a knife (I.B bought some cheap knives, separate from his own collection.) to start carving out your pumpkin. 

“Okay, if you insist.” You turn back to the three of them, leaning against the counter, hoping the light from the candles made you look eerie. “I’m going to tell you the tale of Slenderman.” 

“Pfft, I've heard this one. He’s not scary. He’s just a creepypasta.” 

“Just a creepypasta? That’s not what I heard.” 

You walk back to the table and take a seat, taking a look at your pumpkin, trying to decide what to carve. You decide on a classic scary look. 

“It was over a hundred years ago, in woods much like these that a man and his son were hiking. The man, whose name is lost to time, loved his son more than life itself – he was his pride and joy...” 

You jab the knife into the pumpkin, and Panda jumps so hard that his phone falls with a clatter to the floor. 

“Which is why his life took a turn for the worse when he lost his son that day. He said he didn’t know what happened – he simply turned around and he was gone. He searched for hours, only to find nothing. Soon the entire town joined the man in the search for his son in those woods. Hours turned into days. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months.” 

You look between the three of them – Panda looked ready to faint again, Grizz’s wide eyes are still fixed on you, and Ice bear looks... unfazed. 

“After 6 months of combing those woods over and over again, the man’s son was presumed dead. There was a funeral with no body. A headstone with no casket. And over the months of searching, the man had begun to fade. He’d stopped speaking. He’d lost weight. He’d paled. He looked like a skeleton in a suit at the funeral... which was the last time he was seen. He had refused to believe that his boy was gone, so he, still in his suit, wandered into the woods, delusional with grief, searching. 

They say that he never came back, but... i think we all know the truth. He remains in the woods to this very day, but those years of isolation and exposure to the elements has warped what was once a man into...something else. His body grew taller – adapted to the trees. His face and body became ghostly white, and he became as silent as the wind. 

Now a monster, he roams the city streets, parks, neighborhoods, and woods searching for anyone to help him comb the woods. He takes them with him, and if they refuse to search, they die. And if they help, they are forced to roam, as lost as his son, until they eventually succumb to the elements.” 

All three of them had stopped what they were doing to listen to your story, and by the time you’re done, you’ve finished your jack-o-lantern, and you slowly turn it to face them, leaning slightly over it, just for the drama of it all as you finish with: 

“...And I think that’s him in the window.” 

Panda says nothing – he freezes in place, shooting panicked looks towards his brothers. Grizz had turned to look at the window, and Ice bear narrowed his eyes at you. 

You were only kidding about Slenderman in the window, of course, but when lightning strikes once more, you spot it: a tall, thin figure’s silhouette in the window – you can’t see what it is, the light’s gone in a flash – but it’s enough to make you jump, and THAT makes Ice bear turn. 

The thing moves away from the window, and Panda starts hyperventilating again. Ice Bear doesn’t hesitate to stand, pulling an ax out of nowhere. Wait, what? 

Grizz looks to you, eyes wide. (though he tries so very hard to hide his panic!) 

“Did you see that?” 

You sit, totally silent in the firelight. 

“Uh.” 

A loud, sudden thump on the side of the house makes everybody at the table jump, and what happens next is a bit... chaotic. 

You, Grizz, AND Panda all start yelling, Panda runs around in tiny circles before darting off again, you and Grizz hold your pumpkin-carving knives tight as you get up from the table, looking wildly around for any other signs of movement or...whatever that thing was outside. 

“Ice bear will investigate. Stay here.” 

Ice bear looks mildly concerned as he leaves the room, and Grizz turns to you, grabbing your shoulders and shaking you slightly. 

“Y/N!!!! YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL – HOW DID THEY DEFEAT HIM IN THE STORY?!?!?!” 

“I d- It's just a legend! There is NO WAY to defeat him!” 

You grab his paw and run off in the direction that Panda had run off in, finding him hiding under his bed, tapping his phone, looking desperately at the both of you. 

You don’t hesitate to join him under the bed. 

“Call the cops, little bro!” 

“I can’t! I d- I don’t have service!” 

The three of you hear creaking footsteps somewhere else in the house. 

You huddle together under the bed. 

Footsteps come closer. 

“I love you guys.” 

They hug you tight, and you do your best to hug back in the cramped space. 

“We love you too.” 

“Yeah,” Panda reassures, “We love you too-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-” 

“PANDA!” 

Panda is suddenly drug out from under the bed, sliding backwards as something grabs him by the feet. 

You’re much smaller than the bears, so you’re able to wiggle out from under the bed, grabbing – oh, god damn it – miki-chan as you hopped up onto the bed, the very, very tall creature trying to get a screaming Panda up onto his feet. You don’t hesitate for a moment – you leap off the bed, miki-chan as your sword as you swing with all your might, hitting the thing in the back. It... makes it jump. 

“Ow! What the heck?” 

It has a southern accent. Uh. That’s not exactly that you imagined Slenderman sounding like, but okay. You’re about to hit the thing again when Panda steps in front of the thing. 

“Wait!” 

The blow you were in the middle of delivering slows and you softly hit Panda instead. 

“It’s just Charlie!” 

Lightning strikes again, and the creature is revealed for a moment – oh my god, wh- what the heck is he??? 

Whatever he is doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that he runs away, screaming. 

“Oh dang it- Y/n, that’s uh... that’s our friend. He’s afraid of humans.” 

You all take a moment as the bears seem to decompress a little bit – okay, great, but you’re still confused. What IS Charlie?? Why is he afraid of humans?? 

“Okay.” your voice is a few octaves too high, so you clear your throat as you toss Miki-chan over your shoulder and back onto the bed. “Ahem- I mean okay, uh... so he’s not here to kill us?” 

“Nope he’s cool! Uh... little help?” 

You look back at Grizz, who’s stuck under the bed, and grab his paws, helping him out by pulling with all your might. 

Now you just feel bad for smacking Charlie with a pillow. Hopefully you’ll get the chance to apologize. 

*** 

About an hour later, you all find Charlie all folded up in a kitchen cabinet like he was made of origami paper, and it took Panda coaxing him out with snacks to convince him he was fine – and that you were nice. 

You had kept your eyes shut (as per I.B’s advice) and promised you wouldn’t open them unless Charlie gave you the okay. 

Apparently Charlie’d wanted to check up on the bears before the storm got there, and then ended up getting caught in the storm – when he had knocked on the door, he assumed nobody heard him because of all the thunder, so he went to knock on windows instead. He hadn’t meant to scare anyone – and he accepted your apology for hitting him with an anime body pillow. 

With all those shenanigans over, you five pile onto the couch – agreeing to watch a dumb horror movie to sooth your nerves – since the power had come back on. 

You switch on “Help! My mummy’s a werewolf 2: This Again!” and get comfortable between I.B and Grizz, the sound of the rain hitting the roof over your head accompanied by distant soft thunder. 

Right before the movie starts, you joke; “Anybody want to play Midnight Man?” 

“NO-” 

“ABSOLUTELY NOT-” 

There’s a chorus of protests around you, and Panda weakly throws a throw pillow at you – which you catch with a laugh. 

“I’m kidding! Just kidding!” 

You laugh quietly to yourself as you hug the pillow to your chest, the movie just beginning on the screen – it sure was a relief that all those silly stories were just stories, right? 

You spot a blobby shadow lurking outside one of the far-off windows, disappearing into the woods. 

…they are just stories, right?

**Author's Note:**

> Mary was born with glass bones and paper skin,,,,,,
> 
> Every morning she breaks her legs,,,,
> 
> And every afternoon she breaks her arms,,,,,
> 
> F in chat for Mary


End file.
